Hi all, im new here can someone help my by giving me a quick or long explanation i would like to know a few things about the german army... What did they do in training for basic soldiers e.g rifle men (like stages of training) What is the structure of the german army E.G how many to a squad who was incharge of a squad how many to a battalion etc if you get me drift this would be really helpful i cant find it anywhere thanks in advance friends
RED: It depends on which part of the Wehrmacht you are talking about. The German army, known as the Wehrmacht, was comprised of the Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe and Heer - and by defacto the Waffen SS. List of German Divisions in WW2 Bottom links give you a better understanding of the manpower certain units had and other nice information. Axis History Factbook: Waffen SS Axis History Factbook: Heer Axis History Factbook: Luftwaffe Axis History Factbook: Kriegsmarine
I was talking about the land force (heer) sorry forgot to mention it. Thanks for the link its very helpful i was just wondering what sort of drills they would of used
The Wehrmacht wasn't the "army", the army is the Heer. The Wehrmacht was an organization roughly analogous to the Chiefs of Staff & Department of Defense combined. In theory, it coordinated all inter-service operations, although the Heer had sole responsiblity for the Eastern Front. Equating the Wehrmacht and the Heer is simply incorrect.
Regarding training it, would also be interesting to mention the Reich Arbeiter Dienst (RAD) and the Hitler Jugend which could be considered as precursors of a German military career.
Let me get this straight; you say you study organizational culture and behavior? And you think the Wehrmacht "spoke with one voice"? That's the funniest statement I've heard all week. I guess you never heard of the rivalry between the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe? The Luftwaffe and the KM certainly "worked as one to accomplish the mission"....NOT! They hardly communicated with each other at all, and when they did it was mostly to point fingers at each other over who was to blame for some screw-up. The interservice rivalries of the US and British armed forces were mere debates among team mates compared to what went on among the various German service branches. As for the origin of the phrase. "Wehrmacht penis envy", here is what Dr. Joel Hayward has to say, "It is fashionable among modern warfighters to lavish praise on the Wehrmacht; the army air force and navy of the Nazi state. Laudatory analysis of the Wehrmacht's operational art seems an inherent component of books and articles that attempt to explain the theory and practice of jointery, the manoeuverist approach, and the expeditionary nature of today's armed conflict. Commenting harshly upon the fixation that modern western warfighters seem to have with the Germans, Daniel P. Bolger lamented that Maneuervists have a bad case of what may be called, to borrow from a sister social science, 'Wehrmacht penis envy'. These devotees, Bolger writes, 'Love the Panzers, the Stukas, and the sturm und drang, with the enthusiasm of any twelve-year-old boy who has yet to learn about Kursk, Omaha Beach, or Operation Cobra, let alone Bergan-Belsen." http://www.airpowerstudies.co.uk/Hendon-Air-Power-Conference.pdf
